The National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova, one of the former Soviet satellite countries, is now becoming one of the foremost chamber orchestras to emerge from that region. Their conductor, J. Crispin Ward, was extremely instrumental in securing for them a very prestigious contract with the English recording company Chandos to produce three CDs over the next two years. Their very first recording will be available in early 2005. The repertoire on that CD will be:

All music by Alexander Tcherepnin including Musica Sacra, Suite Georgienne for Piano and Strings, The Twelve for narrator and orchestra, and the folk cantata for bass and strings titled Von Spass und Ernst (in Jest and Earnest).

More information will follow about where you may secure copies of this recording as soon as it is released. The release date will be announced at the beginning of 2005.

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Crispin Ward – Conductor

Crispin Ward started conducting at the age of three when he directed a performance of Verdi requiem, with Joan Sutherland, Pavarotti et al, in his parent’s front living room, standing on a chair waving a kebab skewer. Then after a fifteen years’ gap…

Mr. Ward studied conducting for four years at the Royal College of Music in London with Norman del Mar and Christopher Adey, but it was first as a horn player that he made his international name. He has appeared as horn soloist and section leader in every European country (except Iceland, for which he is awaiting offers). He has worked with many inspirational musicians such as Claudio Abbado, Zubin Meta, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Kyng Wa Chung, Bill Christie (he was principal horn of Les Arts Florissants for six years), John Elliot Gardener, Cecile Ousset, Jessie Norman, Brigitte Fassbender, Leonard Berstein, Georg Solti, Ravi Shankar, Kumar Bose, Viktoria Mullova.

During the past five years Mr. Ward has been in constant demand to use his conducting skills and was appointed Principal Conductor with the British Chamber Orchestra, for some time one of the busiest ensembles in the UK. With a vast repertoire this young vigorous ensemble toured extensively within the country, regularly appearing at festivals and concert halls. He is also guest conductor with many other UK ensembles.

Mr. Ward’s experience includes directing over twenty theatrical productions over the past eight years including Oliver, Sweeney Todd (which won the NODA award for the best UK show of the year), Godspell, and due to illness he stepped in, at the last minute, to the role of Captain Tempest in Return to the Forbidden Planet. Apart from having to sing and dance rock and roll dressed like Captain James T Kirk, whilst reciting Shakespeare, in an American accent, in public, he had to maintain his dignity as musical director for which he then received another NODA award for his efforts. He is a regular performer at the Arundel Festival at which he has conducted performances for the last four years including The Magic Flute and The Pirates of Penzance.

For the last three years he has been granted a British Foreign Office Scholarship that has supported his efforts as the artistic director and principal conductor of the National Chamber Orchestra of Moldova. This involves conducting this, and other orchestras, in Moscow, Kiev, Odessa, Bucharest, Tver and around the former Eastern Bloc. He has also given masterclasses to advanced music students in both musical history and performance practice. He is involved at government level with the development and promotion of cultural links between Britain and Ukraine, Moldova and Russia. He was recently involved in meetings between Moscow and Chisinau (Moldova), the first meeting at ministerial level since the break up of the Soviet Union. He has just been invited to conduct Dido and Aeneas in the Moldova International Opera Festival.

During his time with the NCO Moldova the orchestra has developed its repertoire from a base of standard works to an exciting modern outlook towards 20th Century works.

Whilst working in Moldova, he instigated a music education project with the orchestra that is now in its second year. This has involved over two hundred performances in schools to some 12 000 children, is backed up with considerable resources for teachers and has tripled the salaries of the orchestral players. It has generated a huge interest from amongst the pupils and it receives many letters of thanks on a daily basis.

As a result of his extremely successful work in the whole sphere of Moldovan music, Mr. Ward received the title of Om Emerit from President Vladimir Veronin in last year’s New Year’s Honours list. This is the highest award that a visitor can receive and is the equivalent of a British Honorary Knighthood. His friends and colleagues call him Sir Crispin at their peril however.

The orchestra has just received a contract from Chandos records to record three CDs, the first of which, containing the music of Alexander Tcherepnin, is due to be released early 2005.

Mr. Ward maintains a very informal approach to orchestral and theatre direction. He has a very animated, romantic, almost aggressive style of performance that has appealed to critic, musician and audience. Mr. Ward is renouned for his relaxed relationship with any audience, including them in the performance, talking to them and inviting humour, laughter and applause.

He is a lecturer at University College Chichester teaching to degree level in composition, history and performance practice.

Mr. Ward is a member of Speedway Sheep, a jazz/rock/soul/funk band that play regularly at events around the UK. He is a lifelong member of London Irish Rugby Football Club and his interests include gardening, walking, cooking and classic sports cars.

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